My 9 favorite Abigor releases!

Abigor are one of my absolute favorite Black Metal bands of all time and like the headline says the topic of today's post is the 9 best Abigor releases. Or rather my opinion on these albums of this brilliant Austrian band.

Got an e-mail last weekend from Avantgarde Music saying that the delayed vinyl of their new record “Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)” is finally on its way. It’s been available for streaming since 3rd January and the CD was released on the 29th of January. I’ve only listened to it a handful of times because I want to wait to for the vinyl so I can listen to it properly but more about the new 
“Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)” album in an upcoming post. To celebrate this occasion I wanted to do my top-9 Abigor albums and EP’s. This Austrian band was one of the first Black Metal band outside of my northern realms except for Venom that I really got into in the mid 90’s. In my opinion Abigor have made some of the best  Black Metal albums ever and I would probably even go as far as to say they are my favorite band outside Scandinavia.

Number 1. Nachthymnen (From The Twilight Kingdom) 1995

The second Abigor full length studio album and also my favorite record by them. It was the second album I bought of theirs on CD back in 1996. It completely blew me away it's amazing that it was recorded in just 3 days. This album wasn't released on vinyl until 2008 and the "golden" vinyl limited to 500 copies is the first and is the only standalone print of "Nachthymnen" on vinyl until the vinyl compilation "1994 - 1998: The Complete Hörnix Recordings" (limited to 1000 copies). This golden version is expensive nowadays (the CD also) I got the LP a couple of years ago and I didn't pay close to what it's going for in these days. I don't mind that they fucked around with the cover artwork because it's somewhat like the original CD anyway.

Number 2. Opus IV 1996

"Opus IV" was the first Abigor album I got in 1996 on CD when I discovered the band. This album is divided into 2 parts the first 4 songs have lyrics and concept written by T.T. called "Horns Lurk Beyond the Stars" the next 4 songs is written by P.K. are called "Blut aus Aeonen". The 2 vinyls are on the unusual 10 inch format and is the only standalone vinyl version of the album it was released in 2011 and is limited to 666 copies.

Number 3. Orkblut - The Retaliation 1995

The “Orkblut” EP is 24.5 min long with 11 tracks 6 of them are instrumental. I guess you could call it a concept album, basically the story is about a warrior who remembers his pagan origins. The EP wasn’t available on vinyl until 2006 and has 3 standalone releases this one picture disc vinyl limited to 200 copies also the standard black vinyl (400 copies) with a cardboard sleeve as does the black/white splatter one (100 copies) have.

Number 4. Supreme Immortal Art 1998

This album I feel is very underrated Abigor has always had their own sound, but if you like Emperor around 1994-97 I think you should give this album a listen. Sadly this has never been released on vinyl except for the vinyl compilation "1994 - 1998: The Complete Hörnix Recordings". I really hope to own that one day because Abigor are extremely sparse to say the least with releasing vinyls. 

I could sell my Abigor collection of (vinyls and CD's) their first 6 releases and easily afford that vinyl box set but I don't know if I ever would do that...   

Number 5. Apokalypse 1997

This very awesome EP has 6 tracks done in 17 minutes performed perfectly. Straightforward brutal Black Metal with no fuss and also a rawer sound than their previous releases. If you like "Zyklon-B - Blood Must Be Shed" (1995) or "War - Total War" (1997) this is a must have in your collection. Hell it should be in your collection anyway. Only available on vinyl in... You should know by now...

Number 6. Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age 1994

The magnificent debut album by Abigor I can't belive such an amazing album is number 6 on my list but that's how brillant Abigor are. It's a great record to start with if you're unfamiliar with them. It's great to see how much the band progressed over a short period much of the material on this album can be found on their demos. This record wasn't available on LP until 2006 the one I have is limited to 200 copies with black & white splatter there's also a standard black version 300 copies. They also changed the cover artwork from the original CD usually hate that but I actually prefer this artwork. Got very lucky when I got this LP awhile ago I paid about 30 euro for it.

Number 7. Channeling the Quintessence of Satan

For this album longtime vocalist Silenius was replaced with Thurisaz. They still sound very much like Abigor musically because Silenius didn't write any music for the band but even if Thurisaz does a great job one still miss Silenius because he was part of their best releases. It sounds like a great follow up to its predecessor "Supreme Immortal Art" that was released 15 months earlier so if you like that one you should enjoy this one. This is the original Napalm Records CD from 1999 the album has never been released on vinyl and is not included in the vinyl box set. I really hope to spin the vinyl someday one can only wish.

Number 8. Leytmotif Luzifer (The 7 Temptations of Man) 2014

This is a A5 digibook release of the album and was their first release on the Italian record company Avantgarde Music. It was also the first full length Abigor album in 16 years that Silenius does vocals on he is just a session member and also his Summoning band mate Protector does backing vocals. As I write further down the number 1-7 are in a league of their own but still this is the best Abigor album in 15 years. Actually don't have the vinyl there's 3 different versions of the release so if I get a good deal on it I'll definitely pick it up.

Number 9. Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity) 2001

A bit of a controversial pick for some maybe but I really like this one. Longtime original member T.T. aka. Thomas Tannenberger (drums, keyboard, bass & guitar) had left the band. The member took on silly aliases original member and guitarist P.K. aka. Peter Kubik called himself Virus 666 P.K. vocalist Thurisaz added LiD to his name and new drummer Moritz N. This was to be the bands last album for awhile because 2 years after its release they quit. But in 2006 P.K. and T.T. joined forces once again. This is the original Napalm Records CD the "Satanized" album have never been released on vinyl.

So that was the list it's predominantly releases from their 90’s discography even if I really like both 

“Leytmotif Luzifer” and “Satanized” the number 1-7 records are in a whole different league in terms of quality. Abigor have since the new millennium been sort of hit or miss. I wouldn’t say any release are crap but my expectations is set very high whenever they release something new. For example the albums "Fractal Possession" (2007) and "Time Is the Sulphur in the Veins of the Saint - An Excursion on Satan's Fragmenting Principle" (2010) were both very disappointing, of course there's some exceptions on those albums, but compared to my favorite 9 they cannot compete with. Also the EP's or singles released by Abigor in the 2000's aren't even close to "Apokalypse" or "Orkblut".

Decided not to include their demo compilation “Orgio Regium 1993-1994” from 1998 that have 8 songs from 4 of their demos (it would also fuck up my collage) bur it’s a must have if you like Abigor. Hope this can serve as a guide for people that’s unfamiliar with the excellence of Abigor you could of course go directly to the best albums but I would go chronological route.

These are a few of my Abigor promos (also some Summoning and others) that I've scanned from my old magazines and fanzines. Probably have even more but I scanned these ones more then a year ago and I didn't want to go through my BIG pile of old mags once again. Napalm Records really did great promos in the 90's and released many excellent albums back then.